The lead sentence of the story Gallery hits funds milestone (SP, Aug. 31) reads: "The $20-million fundraising target for the Remai Art Gallery of Saskatchewan has been met."

It has? How? Nowhere in the story does it say how that goal was met. Did the money just fall out of the sky, or is city hall playing some sort of shell game with taxpayers' money?

My understanding was that the fundraising campaign was roughly $2.5 million short of its $20 million goal. Where did the final amount come from? We don't know. The secretive dealings that characterize the RAGS initiative continue apace.

It's just another chapter in the RAGS-to-riches ripoff of a public that doesn't need or want a new gallery, especially one that will cost the municipal taxpayer roughly seven times what an expanded, renovated, state-of-the-art Mendel Gallery would.

If the current administration is so confident that the public is behind the RAGS drive, why not do the right thing and hold a binding plebiscite on the blasted thing, as part of the civic election?

Let's see once and for all if there's public support for what many people think is a white elephant in the making. If not, let it be stopped in its tracks.